Basic HTML Version
is centred on PMV, but also includes
upgrades to the Port of Prince Rupert, as
well as road and rail connections across
Western Canada and into the U.S.
Committed, collective investment
in APGCI infrastructure by the federal,
British Columbia and Vancouver
governments, as well as the port, its
stakeholders, its corporate tenants and
the railways, is approximately $9 billion.
For perspective, almost 50 per cent more
is being spent on APGCI projects than on
current expansion of the Panama Canal.
The scale of the programand the fact
that the port is located on the edge of
Canada’s third-largest citymakes planning
and development a complex challenge. In
carrying out its projects, PMVmust work
with the 16municipalities and several First
Nations whose territories it borders, as well
as minding several ecological preserves.
Development requires community
engagement processes that can takemuch
longer to complete than in other global
jurisdictions, as well as competitionwith
real estate developers for land acquisition.
Aiding the planning process, the port’s
land-use guidelines were simplified
following the amalgamation of three
separate port authorities in 2008.
The port authority uses the
Port Metro
Vancouver Land Use Plan
as its central
policy and planning guide. Within it, the
port has systematically taken stock of all
its properties and regions, cataloguing
the most opportune use for each.
The network of projects to be
completed within the port’s jurisdiction
over the coming 10 years includes the
building of new highways, overpasses
and bridges that will increase road and
rail capacity. Decoupling road and
rail interchanges will create maximum
fluidity and thus boost the port’s capacity
and speed of movement. A number of
these improvements had already been
implemented prior to the fall of 2014.
Initiatives also include an extensive
$2-billion enhancement of the Roberts
Bank Rail Corridor in Delta, British
Columbia, the country’s largest
container port.
Mills said these investments spurred
industry to recognize the growth
potential involved, and major terminal
expansions by tenants—including
agricultural corporations—followed.
“They’re all looking at increasing either
efficiencies and/or structural capacity to
increase their access to the market,” he
explained.
MAXIMIZING EFFICIENCY AND
OPPORTUNITY
Viterra, whose Prairie grain co-operative
predecessors have maintained PMV
facilities since the 1920s, moves
approximately two million tonnes of
oilseed and pulse crops through Pacific
terminals. It will triple this number to six
million tonnes once APGCI upgrades to
its Burrard Inlet terminal are complete,
in order to keep up with steadily rising
Western Canada harvest numbers.
Port metro vancouver
at a gLance
• Thirty-five years after Captain George
Vancouver explored Burrard Inlet and
reported to England its ideal location
as a deep-water port, Hudson’s Bay
Company established Fort Langley,
where it began the export of salted
salmon to other Pacific destinations.
• PMV trades $172 billion in goods with
160-plus trading economies annually.
• Approximately 99,000 Canadian jobs
are linked to PMV activity. Generating
$20.3 billion in economic output
annually, the port contributes $9.7
billion to the country’s annual GDP while
contributing $1.6 billion in tax revenue to
three levels of government.
• Canada now has four grain-handling
maritime ports. On theWest Coast, Port
Metro Vancouver (PMV) ships an average
of 14.6 million metric tonnes per annum
(MMTPA), while the Port of Prince Rupert
moves 4.6MMTPA. In Eastern Canada,
the Port of Thunder Bay moves 5.9
MMTPA, and 0.5MMTPA is transported
through the Port of Churchill.
Fall
2014
grainswest.com
29
BIRD’S EYE VIEW:
Port Metro Vancouver is Canada’s
largest and most diversified port, facilitating trade across
five business sectors including: automobiles, bulk, break-
bulk, container and cruise ships.